1. Technical Field
The present disclosure generally relates to drug delivery implants. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to layered biodegradable drug delivery implants and systems and methods for making the implants.
2. Background of Related Art
Many therapeutic agents (TAs) and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) are known. As discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,632,457 the entire disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein, hydrogels may be used to form delivery implants for the controlled release of TAs and APIs. These drug delivery implants are typically preformed, and thus, provided to a clinician with one or more predetermined TAs and/or APIs, in predetermined concentrations, configured to be dispensed at predetermined rates.
Customizing an implant for a given patient and/or procedure using current implant forming methods may thus be cost and/or time prohibitive. Further, many TAs and/or APIs begin to denature upon formation, thus limiting the shelf-life of an implant and/or the agents and/or ingredients that may be used in the implant.
Improved systems and methods for making drug delivery implants that may be preformed, i.e., in an operating room during a surgical procedure, remain desirable.